Ma-chine for splitting leathek



`ALliHA RICHARDSON, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

MACHINE ron srLiTTiNe LEATHER.

specification of Letters Patent No. egei, dated Aprii i7, 1844.

To all/whom it may concern: 1 i

`Be it known thatI, ALP-HA RICHARDSON, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, `have invented anew and useful Improvement in Machinery for Splitting Strips or Pieces of Leather for theUse of Harness-Makers, Shoemakers, &c., and

i that `the following description, taken in con-i` nection `with the accompanying drawings, hereinafter referred to, forms a i full and exact specication of the same, wherein I i have set forth the nature and principles of my said improvement by` which my invention. may be distinguished from others of a similar class, together with such parts oi' combinations of parts as I claim and desire to have secured to me byLetters Patent.`

In the machines which have heretofore been used for the purpose abovev specified, the cutting edgeyof the knife has always j. been made of a wedge shape, that is with a bevel both on the upper and under side, and the, gage. and feed rollers have always been arranged one above the. other, withi their axes in the same vertical plane, the edge of the knife being directed to the bite of the rollers or their line of contact when brought close together. In these .machines it has i been found impossible to adjust the edge of the knife lin'such a manner asto cut a piece of leather evenly, or so as to have the out of an uniform thickness, and in fact, the strip of leather frequently runs` or j passes down on the underside of the knife1 without being operated upon by the same.

"T he reason for this is that the beveled faces of the knife come in contact with the surfaces of the rollers, before the edge can be brought sufficiently near to the bite of the same, to prevent the effects aforesaid.

My improvement will effectually prevent the bad results above set forth and consists` informing a knife with its underside only beveled and in arranging the bilge of the underside of the upper or gage roller directly over the edge of the knife so as to guide the strip `of leather accurately to the same; while the bilge of the upper side of the lower or feed roller is placed at a little distance from the edge of the knife, so that the said edge may be brought very near to the surface of the` said roller and prevent the leather from passing down without being split. In other words the rollers are arranged, so that a vertical plane drawn through the axis ofthe lower or feed roller 'will pass'by and be a tangent to the edge of the knife, while a plane passing through the axis ofthe lower or feed roller will be at some little distance from said edgen ;My improvement is represented in the iiguresv of the accompanying plate of drawings where the above described novel ars rangement is clearly shown. j Figure l, is a top View of the machine. Fig. 2, is a` longitudinal vertical section taken in the plane of the line A B Fig. l, and Fig.` 3, is a transverse vertical section taken in the plane of the line O D Fig. l.

E E E, &,c. in the several drawings; repre-` sents the framework, which is made of cast iron, and shaped as seen in the several` figures. t j

a a, Figs. l, and 2, is the knife having its underside only beveled, as shown in sec.- tion Fig. 3, which gives it a more acute edge. This knife is confined tothe frame.-`

workE E by means of the long clamp` screwsand nuts shown at Z), b, in Figs. 1, 2,

and 3, which screws pass through elongated slots in said framework as shownat c, c by dotted lines in Fig. l, which arrangement in conjunction with the horizontal pressing screws CZ, d, Fi l, provides the necessary nieans of adjusting the knife a, a. i

`e e is the gage roller, which is arranged as herein before specified with its bilge directly over the edge of theknife a a. The journals of this roller rest` and revolve in movable bearings f, Fig; 2, whichare supported onthe spiral springs g, g, and are operated upon at thel top bythe compresse ing screws It, h, Figs.` l and 2. These compressing screws workin proper female screws cut in the top plate of the vertical chambers i, ,--z' z' in which the boxes f, f, and springs g, g, are arranged.` The above arrangement of parts, provides, it will be seen, for a vertical adjustment of the gage roller to accommodate it to various thicknesses of leather. Y

le, la, is the lower or feed roller, the journals of which rest and revolve in proper bearings in the vertical sliding pilates Z, l, arranged on the inner sides of the chainbers 1l, ,-z' z', This plate has `proper slots in its upper part as shown at m-mFig 2, to allow the free movement of the journals of the gage rollers e, e, and rest at theirbottoms on the spiral springs n, n, Figs. 2 and 3, so that it will be seen that the lower roller can be depressed in case of any bunch A the springs In, n, more or less rigid and provid ing for varying the space between the knifeand the surface of'fthe lower roller lc, 7c. The feed roller 7c lo is placed as herein before suggested, so that its axis is not in the same vertical plane with that of the gage roller, but a little distance from the same, and so that the edge of the knife instead of being directed toward the bilge of said roller has a direction toward the side of the same (so to speak), or in other words to a line on the surface, below the line of the bilge.

The above described arrangement of the rollers and knife enable the machine to be worked with great accuracy and success, as by adjusting the space between the edge of the knife and the surface of the roller 7c, 7c, so as to allow only one part of the leather to be split to pass, and depressing the gage roller over the edge of the knife, so as to guide the leather properly to said knife, a piece of leather may be split in any way that is desirable, whereas the machines which are now in use cannot be depended upon for good work, for the reasons herein before set forth.

The rollers e e and k 7o are driven by the following arrangement of geared wheels Snc.: r is the driving shaft suitably supported in the framework, and having a winch or crank s by which it is driven, and a cogged pinion t xed on it, which engages with the cogged wheel u, one one journal of the feed roller 7c 7c, and turns said roller. A cogged pinion e arranged on the journal of the feed roller engages with a similar one w on one journal of the gage roller e c and turns the same.

The proportions of the gearing should be such as to give the requisite motions to the rollers. As has been before suggested it is indispensably requisite that the axis of the gage roller should be in the same vertical plane with the edge lof the knife-and if the axes of the two rollers were in the same vertical plane before the edge of the knife could be brought to the po-sition specified, the beveled face of the same would come in contact with the surface of the lower or feed roller and prevent the split or lower half of the leather from passing down. For this reason the arrangement of the rollers as herein before specified is very essential and effectual.

Having thus described my improvement I shall state my claim as follows- I claim the arrangement, herein before specified, of the gage and feed rollers of t leather-splitting machine, so that the bilge of the lower' side, or the axis, of the former shall be directly over or in the same vertical plane with the edge of the knife, while the axis of the latter is a little distance out of said vertical plane, and its up-` per bilge is a litle above the level of the edge of the knife, for the purposes recited in the foregoing specification.

In testimony that the foregoingl is atrue description of my said invention and impro-vement I have hereto set my signature this twenty ninth day of January in the year eighteen hundred and forty four.

ALPI-IA RICHARDSON.

`Witnessesz j EZRA LINCOLN, Jr., T. H. BORDEN. 

